Good writing important in every career, alumni tell students

Former Writing Center tutor Milie Fang (left) tutors Fae Rabin. “If I didn’t have the Writing Center, I wouldn’t feel as connected at all,” says Fang, who is applying to med school.

Even if you’re in a career that focuses on math like accounting, you’re going to need good writing skills to communicate with colleagues and clients, says UIC grad Samantha Gordon.

“As much as you think you’re never going to use writing, that’s the farthest thing from the truth,” said Gordon, an accountant at NDH Group who received her master’s in accounting in May.

Gordon was among former Writing Center tutors back on campus Oct. 6 for the “Writing Center Alumni Evening: Tutors Transitioning from College to Career.” Panelists included Edgar Villeda (English, ’03), Angelique Zobitz (English, ’04), Suraj Madoori (biological sciences and English, ’04) and Millie Fang (biological sciences, ’14). They returned to share the skills they learned at the Writing Center, which offers face-to-face and online tutoring for any piece of writing.

“It’s a shining example of a student-centered resource that helps UIC students be successful and learn how to express themselves,” said Dibyen Majumdar, professor and senior associate dean of LAS.

Zobitz, vice president of Adaptly, a social media marketing company, said that by her third year at the Writing Center, she had learned how to read others so she could help them develop their writing skills.

“This university was the first time I was exposed to such a multitude of ethnic groups, diversities, nationalities, viewpoints, behaviors,” she said.

The panelists agreed that the Writing Center gave them a sense of community and involvement with UIC. “If I didn’t have the Writing Center, I wouldn’t feel as connected at all,” said Fang, who is applying to med school.

Villeda, business development manager at McDermott & Emery, said interacting with new people provides useful job-hunting tools. “You start to develop these skills and this confidence level and also the enjoyment of other people, and that helps with interviews because you have to be observers as much as you are leading the conversation,” he said.

The Writing Center will host alumni events each semester.

“We want to try to build the event,” said Walter Benn Michaels, head of the English department. “We want to make clear both to our current students and to all the alumni that you are always welcome on this campus, and we are grateful to have you on campus.”